Has anyone used ACE with VDI?

[sgrinker]

VMWare Ace 2.0 Beta was just announced, which got me thinking more about the suggested idea of ACE as a "portable" VDI component. VMWare reps have been talking about this idea for awhile now, but always seemed to suggest waiting for ACE 2.0. Now that it's hear, I guess we can start testing.

I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with ACE, but especially in the realm of VDI? Any positives, negatives, or just general thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

[admin · Accepted solution]

You can not use ACE 2.0 in the sense of an offline online solution. For example, you can not have a hosted VDI desktop that downloads as an ACE instance to a mobile device.

You could have users that have VDI desktops and ACE's when they are mobile that uses offline files and roaming profiles.

You could have an ACE thats used to remotely connect to a VDI desktop

With ACE 2.0 there is the concept of a Pocket ACE this is an ACE thats loaded to a flash drive or other portable media and run from a PC or Laptop. The Pocket ACE could remotely connect to the hosted VDI desktop.

Another option is a bootable pocket ACE where the flash drive is bootable and boots directly into the ACE. This is not part of the product but will probably be written up as a white paper covering approaches for doing it.

[sgrinker]

Thanks for the information. It was never as clearly spelled out to us, but I suspected that was more the case. Everytime laptops where mentioned in any VDI conversation with sales reps, techs, or other consultants, it seemed that ACE was always mentioned as a possible cure-all. Not to say that it isn't a possible solution, but it doesn't sound like it is as straightforward as a "Check out your VDI for the road" scenario. I'm sure with time though, such concepts might become more of a reality.

Thanks again

Steve

[mreferre]

Steve,

the impression I have got so far is that ACE never really took off mainly because it's another manner to manage a distributed environment. Certainly better than a standard distributed environment but yet distributed.

VDI is getting (apparently at least) more grip because it's based on a different philosophy that is "centralized computing" with all the advantages that it brings onto the table. Today ACE and VDI are two different technologies/solutions/philosophies but it would make more sense to have them converge to get the best of both words where, for example, ACE might provide the check-in / chek-out feature of a centralized desktop VDI solution as you are suggesting.

Time will tell.

Massimo.

[sgrinker]

Massimo

Well said with the distributed/centralized comments. I would imagine (or hope anyway) that they might be headed to this eventual convergance of the two, but as you say only time will tell. With the number of laptops we have in place, a total VDI/Thin Client solution would never be feasible in it's current state. I realize there are the Neoware m100's, which are another very interesting idea. Just don't know how practical the price point is on that idea yet either.

Thanks again

Steve

[admin]

Steve your scenario is the exact reason why ACE exists. There is a large population of mobile users. Insurance companies are a great example. A lot of organizations are looking to deploy a hybrid solution for some time into the future. Ironically laptop sales out pace desktop sales,increasing the risk of data loss. More and more organizations are looking for way to address work from home and their laptop force while at the same time minimizing the risk of data loss.

Even with a thin laptop, today their is not enough flash in the local device to store the average virtual desktop image. The cost of flash is coming down though. There are other ways to address it as high speed increases and other technology enablers drop in cost, I belive thi will become a more realistic use case.